A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 02 eBook

SECTION IX.

Some Account of the Manners and Customs on the
Gambia, and of the Elephant and Hippopotamus.

It now remains for me to relate what I observed and
was informed of concerning this country, during my
short stay. The religion of the Negroes of Gambia
consists of various kinds of idolatry; they place great
reliance on sorcery and other diabolical things, yet
all believe in God. There are many Mahometans
among them, who trade to many countries, yet are not
settled in houses, because the natives are ignorant[1].
They live very much in the same manner with the natives
of Senegal, and have the same kinds of provisions;
but they cultivate more sorts of rice. They eat
dogs flesh, which I never heard of being used anywhere
else. They are clothed in cotton garments, and
have great abundance of cotton in their country, which
may be the reason of the Gambians not going naked,
as those of Senegal do, where cotton is very scarce.
The women dress in the same manner; and, when they
are very young, take great delight in delineating
figures on their necks, breasts, and arms, with the
point of a hot needle, which are never obliterated,
and which resemble the flowers and ornaments which
are wrought on silk handkerchiefs. The country
is excessively hot, and the heat increases as we go
to the south; besides which, we found it much hotter
up the river than at sea, owing to the immense number
of trees with which the country everywhere abounds.
Some of these trees are of very great dimensions.
Near a spring where our sailors were in use to fill
our water casks, not far from the banks of the river,
there grew an exceedingly large tree, but its height
was by no means proportional to its thickness; for,
though it measured seventeen cubits in girth near the
ground, its height, by estimation, was only twenty
paces. This tree was hollow, but the branches
were very large, avid extended to a great distance,
forming a thick and ample shade. But there were
many other trees much larger than this, by which the
richness and fertility of the soil may be easily conceived;
and the country is intersected by numerous streams.

There are many elephants in this country, but the
natives are ignorant of the art of taming these animals,
as is practised in other countries. One day,
while we lay at anchor in the middle of the river,
we observed three elephants come out from the wood
and walk by the river side, on which we sent our boat
with some of the people towards them, but they immediately
returned into the wood. These were all I ever
saw alive; but, sometime afterwards, Guumi-mensa[2],
one of the Negro lords, shewed me a dead young elephant,
which he had killed after a chase of two days.
The Negroes hunt on foot in the woods, using only
arrows and assagays, or javelins, which are all poisoned.
When they hunt the elephant they conceal themselves
behind trees, and even sometimes mount to their tops,